Some more random musings.

 Some more random ramblings about TT:120 layouts…

So, we’ve established we’re excited about TT:120 and want to build a layout to explore/exploit the small size. 

BUT we live in another country and Hornby are only selling TT online. So everything has to be bought from them and shipped across the Atlantic. I’ll tell you, after the Christmas goings on when the US postal service managed to break a Pyrex saucepan being shipped to us. I have serious misgivings about the safety of items being shipped to me, unless extremely well packed. I certainly will not consider ordering lengths of flexible track from anywhere if they have to get here by the US postal service.

That ties my hands a little. Unless I can get some PECO track from a trader at the York Model Railway exhibition at Easter, and get it back in my suitcase. But then I remember the mess I made of my Kendal Mint Cake coming back from the UK last year… 

Things don’t look too good.  It’s a serious concern. Since Covid the service from the US Mail has been worse than risible at times. My Hornby TT:120 club membership pack took 7 weeks to get here. Two years ago that would have only taken a week. Packages very often arrive ripped and torn.

So I started to think about using set track. Smaller items would be less likely to be damaged due to careless handling. This then evolved into a challenge. What could you do with a set track expansion pack? Track items all packed together, that may offer better protection in transit.  Expansion packs are supposed to be used as a methodical way to expand your beginner train set. But what if a pack (or two) could be used to make a small shunting layout. Inglenook or tuning fork style? 

The cogs on my brain started turning, and as I had recently been reading James Hilton’s book on Small Layout Design, Whitehall Halt sprang to mind. 

A classic Whitehall Halt scene. Photo credit lost, no copyright infringement intended

This is Whitehall Halt on the Hemyock branch. One of those delightful GWR branch lines that many of us fell in love with in our formative years. A short platform with one short siding, in a small site.

Aerial view of the location of Whitehall Halt, platform in red

How small a site? Look at this Google Earth view. We are very lucky in that the station site is still clearly visible from the air, and it’s possible to make it out without too much difficulty. The station site is little more than 160 feet long. 160 feet at 2.54mm:ft for TT:120, gives you 406mm or 16” Now, that is small. 

Next I looked at the Hornby Track Packs, to see if there was anything that would give me enough track to build this. 

Track Pack 1 contains a left hand point, a single curve track, and five straight straight sections. The straights (and the point) are 160mm (6.5”) long. That’s over thirty inches of straight track. More than enough to build this I think. How you would build the off stage train storage is up to you, traverser, cassettes, or ladder of sidings. The point is that this station could be modelled to scale with just one track pack. 

If the GWR doesn’t interest you then there are countless small stations all over the UK that could be modeled using Track Packs. Some, like Whitehall, could be recreated in their entirety, others might need some compression. The thing is, they are out there, waiting to be found. Some like Whitehall are well known and easy to research. Others less so. Maybe you live on Railway Lane, or Beeching Close. Signs that there used to be an old station near you. Take a look. Researching old stations is great fun, and an overlooked part of the hobby. 

As for me, the GWR doesn’t particularly excite me. So perhaps I’ll look up some more Track Pack stations.

 

A kid again

 Once upon a time, many years ago. A young boy would eagerly wait for the new Hornby catalogue to be released. Memory tells me this was always in January, a couple of weeks into the new year. But that could just have been because it took so long to be delivered to toy shops on the Lincolnshire coast. Time plays tricks on the memory, and I’m sure others will know better.

Anyway, that boy was me, and though I am now retired (early retired, I hasten to add) memories of that child just came flooding back when I received my Hornby TT:120 club membership package. For in among the membership cards and badges was a catalogue. 

Membership pack and catalogue

Now I haven’t seen a Hornby catalogue in a long, long time. But the memories returned. Flicking though the pages, (thicker pages than those of the catalogues of my childhood I’m pretty sure). It took me right back. The Hornby logo is timeless, and the colours really do harken back to the days of Triang TT3. So it felt familiar, and with an atmospheric shot of a steam train on the front, dare I say it, it felt old. Now I don't mean that in a bad way at all. There's just the right level of nostalgia while looking forward with the new scale. Hornby are pushing all the right buttons for me with this.

A 1973 Hornby Catalogue

All in all, it felt good to be a kid again.

East Lincolnshire Light Railway. The Alternative History

As soon as I mentioned the alternative history of The East Lincolnshire Light Railway in the previous blog post, I was overcome with a wave of nostalgia for it. So I looked it out and decided to share it. It’s been a good few years since it’s seen the light of day. Enjoy.

The proposed route of the East Lincolnshire Light Railway.

The East Lincolnshire Light railway 1895-1970 

(The only part of this that has even a grain of truth is the fact that an Act of Parliament was passed for the construction of a line from Saltfleetby to Saltfleet. In fact, a copy of it appeared on that well known auction site about 10 years ago. I bid on it but didn’t win. The farmers were noted potato farmers in the area and there was an RAF base at North Cotes)

The Route. 
Diverging from the Louth to Mablethorpe line at Saltfleetby. This railway was close to 12 miles in length with stations at Saltfleet, Skidbrooke, North Somercotes, Grainthorpe, Marshchapel and North Cotes. In addition there were 2 freight only extensions, one a branch of just under a mile to the harbour at Saltfleet Haven and at North Cotes the line extended on to the RAF base from the village station. There was also a branch line of just under 6 miles from North Somercotes to Covenham with an additional station at Conisholme. In addition to this several sidings were constructed at the larger potato farms around along the line. 

A Brief History. 
With the completion of the branch line from Louth to Mablethorpe in 1877 the communities of the East Lincolnshire coastal plain felt that a railway would be beneficial to them. Indeed the construction of a section to Saltfleet, including the Haven and on as far as North Somercotes was authorised in the 1877 act of Parliament at the time of the construction of the Louth - Mablethorpe line but this had not proceeded with so farmers, townsmen and bankers from the area approached firstly the Great Northern Railway where their plans for the line initially fell on deaf ears. 
In 1892 a new act of Parliament was passed authorising the construction of the East Lincolnshire Light Railway. With no major earthworks to be constructed on the route construction was swift and the line was passed as safe for operation in early 1895 by Her Majesties railway inspector. The first day of operation was March 20th 1895. 
The line was an immediate success with the trains to Louth on Market day a huge success. These early years were to be the lines golden years. Many of the potato farmers in the region who already had 2’ or 2’ 6” gauge lines working their fields, found it to their advantage to ship the potatoes away from their farms on this new railway line. 
Robert Caldwell had many farms in the Grainthorpe and North Somercotes area with 11 miles of trackage linking them alone. He had a siding connecting to the E.L.Lt. Rly at Haxby field close to Grainthorpe Station. Another farmer S.S. Mossop, had a siding built at Clyde house farm near to Marshchapel. 
Like all railways the line struggled through the first world war. Many people fearing that they would loose the railway after the cessation of hostilities in 1918. The services were cut back but the large quantities of potatoes alone (potato farms were producing as much as a ton of potatoes per acre in the post war years) coming down the line was enough to convince the management of the L.N.E.R. that the line still served a valuable purpose when it took over the line in 1923 under the railways act of 1921. 
The branch line down to the Haven was built with the intent of harnessing the potential of the small fishing fleet harboured there. Though it did not cause the hoped for expansion in fish landed at the Haven. There was enough landed for specific fish trains to be added to the timetable. 
Passenger traffic between the wars was not as heavy as it had been before 1914. Improvements in the roads and the increase in the use of the motor vehicle first put paid to the branch line to Covenham in 1930. Though the still huge volumes of potatoes being produced meant that the lines future carrying freight was pretty secure. 
Shortly after the start of the second world war the line as a whole closed to passengers. Though it was hoped that might be a temporary measure the line never reopened for a regular passenger service. Though freight services were continued especially with the R.A.F. Station at North Cotes at the end of the line. Some airmen were bought into the station by train. 
But this stations spotted operational history was to cause problems. The station was closed and reopened several times and by the late 1950’s it was feared that the line would close for good. One leg of the wye junction down to the Haven in Saltfleet was lifted. The daily goods service train was cut to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and then cut to only on a Wednesday. 
With the announcement that the Louth to Mablethorpe line was to close in 1963 it seemed that this would be the end but once again R.A.F. North Cotes was to be the lines saviour. It was to become the first base for a Bloodhound missile squadron. Our first line of defence in case of attack from the Communist bloc. 25 squadron reformed at North Cotes on 1st. October 1963. 
Once again the line was very busy with armaments, munitions and all kinds of supplies on the line as the developments took place at the base. The line was even upgraded due to the heavy weight of the traffic. The light railway standard that the line was originally laid to was not good enough to take the heavier more frequent trains The villages along the line also saw a freight service start up again and several unsuccessful attempts were made to start up a passenger service. With only the market day trains being utilised. 
The earlier lifting of one leg of the wye in Saltfleet meant that trains had to reverse down the line to the Haven before heading up to North Coates, as one particular farmer had ploughed over the old track bed after that piece of line was removed. 
Alas, all good things must come to an end and with an improvement of the roads around Grimsby and Cleethorpes not so far from North Cotes, coupled with the forthcoming closure of the station in 1971 the R.A.F. opted to bring any supplies in by road and without that traffic to sustain the line it closed for good in 1970. 
Track lifting was swift and thorough and if you were to travel to North Lincolnshire today You would see no remanants of the railway at all. Though those of a keen eye and a good imagination might well be able to trace where the line ran down to Saltfleet Haven 

Stations and Mileages. 
Saltfleetby (junction for the E. Lincolnshire light railway)....0 miles 
Gowts Farm Junction (junction for the Haven)...................1.9 miles 
Saltfleet Station ......................................................….........2.4 miles 
Skidbrooke.............................................................…….......3.7 miles 
North Somercotes (junction for Covenham)..........…...........4.7 miles 
Haxby’s Field siding (Cauldwells Farms)...................….....7.25 miles 
Grainthorpe..............................................................……......7.4 miles 
Clyde Farm siding (S.S. Mossop farm)...................…..........9.4 miles 
Marshchapel.............................................................……......9.6 miles 
North Cotes........................................................…..............10.5 miles 
North Cotes Airfield…......................................…...............11.9 miles 

HAVEN BRANCH (miles from Haven Junction) 
Saltfleet Haven......................................................................0.9 miles 

COVENHAM BRANCH (miles from N. Somercotes) 
Covenham Branch Junction.................................................0.4 miles 
Conisholme.....................................................….................1.6 miles 
Covenham......................................................…..................5.7 miles

Looking to the past, planning for the future

To be honest, I have little interest in the mainline steam locomotives offered by Hornby in their initial phase one run of items. My interests lie in the workaday green diesel locomotives and DMU’s that I used to watch from the footbridge of Mablethorpe Railway station as a toddler. I’m also rather fascinated by light railways, like those owned by Colonel Holman Stephens. To that end, many years ago now. I created an entire alternative history around the fictional “East Lincolnshire Light Railway”. A line that left the East Lincolnshire loop line at Saltfleetby, north of my home town of Mablethorpe, and meandered north, up the flat coastal plain serving the small communities and potato farms of the area, before ending somewhere near North Cotes. The route is planned out on an Ordnance Survey map in great detail. I still have all the paperwork somewhere, and a few of my smaller layouts in 4mm scale have been a part of the concept. It’s not unreasonable to think that any layout in TT:120 would form a part of the scheme.

Rudimentary goods facility. A grounded van body

The entire length of the layout 2' x 8"

A solitary person waits at the short platform

Pictures of the layout originally known as “Nowhere Road Halt”. The name was later changed to Skidbrooke Halt to fit in with the E.L.Lt.Rly concept. It definitely has the "Light Railway” feel I'm always after. The track plan was a simple one. A through line and a short siding, long enough for one, perhaps two, at a squeeze, wagons. Despite these limits, it was very relaxing to switch wagons singly, in and out of the siding.

Atmosphere in black and white. You can see how simple the track plan is

My wife Lorrie, is kept busy shunting the pick up goods train. Viewers watch intently.

This was Covenham. I really wanted to go for a wide open, winter feel with dead trees and muted tones with this layout. Though I feel that it was a fail the way I presented things. However, it went to the Worlds Greatest Hobby show in St. Paul, MN as well as the Granite City Train show in St. Cloud, MN, and was a great success. So much so, that it was going to get a whole rebuild with a cabinet finish. Then a couple of weeks later, Covid set in. Wood got very expensive and the cabinet never got built. The baseboards are still in my basement, waiting for the rebuild to be completed. The layout, just a loop and a single siding, was simple to operate and rewarding to work. Perhaps this is the future look of the E.L.Lt.Rly in TT:120.

Everything old is new again.

We all love a little nostalgia. 

Since the announcement of the introduction of TT:120, I have been spending some time going through the wonderful Railway Modeller archive, (courtesy of the app and my subscription). I’ve been reading articles from the days of the introduction of the original TT-3 scale. 

There’s a lot of good information out there. Even though it’s up to 70 years old, and there’s the scale discrepancy between TT-3 (3mm:1ft) and TT:120 (2.54mm:1ft). 

Back then, track plans and structure drawings were reproduced in the new scale. The grids on track plans came with the handy-dandy, easy conversion rule of thumb that, if a grid square on a track plan was one foot in 00, then it was two feet in O scale and six inches in N. (I’m sure many of us can recall that).TT-3 was listed as being a nine inch grid. Today, I think TT:120 would be a 7 1/2” inch grid.

Then there are articles. From legendary modellers of the past. People like Doris Stokes and Edward Beal. These are an absolute treasure trove whatever scale you model in, and are well worth subscribing to the digital edition of Railway Modeller for. In one issue from the 1960’s I found, nestled between articles from Stokes and Beal, articles from Peter Denny, describing the construction of his Leighton Buzzard Linslade layout. A Model Railway layout that was a classic of its time. 

It was a small branch line terminus layout designed as a part of his Buckingham Great Central magnum opus. But it was also designed to fold up and be portable to go to exhibitions. It was built in 4mm scale (EM Gauge) and was just under six feet in length and might make a really nice, small layout in TT:120. Something to consider when planning a layout perhaps. A nod to the past and a look to the future. 

Something else I enjoyed doing, was checking out what the prices of the items were when released originally. Locomotives, wagons, track and suchlike. Comparisons between the costs of things then and today are pretty pointless, but it is fun. Especially since England changed from the old pound, shillings and pence to decimal in February 1971. In 1960, The Triang Brush Type 2 (class 31), was two pounds, 12 shillings and sixpence. About fifty-three pounds in today’s money. I bet the Hornby Brush type 2 isn’t fifty-three quid when it’s released. Incidentally, I recently saw an original Triang Brush type 2 for sale on that well known auction site for £183. I’m hoping the new Hornby version isn’t that price!

The one thing that is clear from all the articles though, is that people were as excited about TT-3 back in the 1950’s as we are excited about TT:120 today. It just shows things never change.

Everything old IS new again. 

The road ahead

 So, we have some great models, track and scenic accessories coming or are here. Just what are my plans for them? 

As I mentioned in a previous post there probably won’t be anything in the immediate future. Not until next year at the earliest. I have other layouts to get ready for shows, and more relevantly, the items that I will probably want aren’t available yet. 

But that doesn’t stop me thinking, coming up with a concept. Some kind of plan. That helps to make things go faster when I get around to construction. So in the meantime I’m sure I’ll come up with plenty of concepts and schemes before I plump for one.

There’s lots of other things to consider too. I posted earlier about how I scratch built all the buildings for a previous layout. They were all made from card and meticulously hand scribed to represent stone. I’d like to make all my layout structures again. Not only because I enjoy it so much, but also living in the USA, anything British outline has to pretty much come from the UK. There’s a couple of retailers in Canada I have used in the past. But otherwise it’s mail order or a visit to a local hobby shop when I go home for a visit. 

Nowadays I use a lot of embossed styrene. What’s available to me from Evergreen and Plastruct to enable me to make a start?  Like siding to model a signal box or small station building for example. 

I know that with a lot of their building accessories like stairs, hand rails and ladders. Plastruct list a nominal scale. With their stairs and handrails, for example. I have used the same product on my 1:87 H0 scale and 1:72 00 scale structures. Yet if you look on the package it says the product is 1:100 scale. Just what is it? Is it 1:100? In which case it might pass for 1:120 scale. I’m inclined to think it’s better suited for 00 and H0 scale. 

However, with embossed sheets I’m inclined to think I might find something very near to what I would need for projects. If not exactly to scale. There’s an absolute plethora of different types of sheets in different sizes for different purposes. I’m going to have to do some digging to find out.

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

When you see the label “Opinion” on a post you’ll know it’s just a rambling stream of consciousness that might not make any sense at all…  

Well that didn’t last long. I woke up this morning to the announcement that Heljan are ceasing the production of their proposed range of TT:120 locomotives due to duplication of models proposed by Hornby. 

Heljan had released CAD renderings of the Class 31 back in June, when PECO made their initial announcement and had proposed the 08 shunter and (I think) a J94 as well. Hornby’s initial announcement included the Class 08 as available immediately. With the class 31 the J94 in later phases of the initial 5 year plan. 

Heljan make very nice, high quality models. I have the Waggon und Maschinenbau Railbus in 00 and it’s a belter of a model, so I was looking forward to the 31. But as they rightly point out in their press release. As of now this is an untried new scale. There are no guarantees of success for anyone, and duplicating items is an unnecessary risk for all involved. 

Hornby jumped in with both feet with a complete range, as an established train set manufacturer has the ability to do. So it does make Heljans efforts look rather half-hearted, and I wonder why they did it in the first place. Why did they announce just locomotives on the back of PECO’s announcement?  When PECO made their announcement I honestly believed that a major manufacturer was not far behind with a huge announcement. Heljan’s was not the one. 

If I had been in the Heljan boardroom. I would have pushed on with production of the Class 31 to make sure it came out before the Hornby version, which could still be a couple of years away yet. Release it in Green and Pre-TOPS Blue to be at home hauling the coaches and wagons Hornby are releasing, then maybe work on a Class 20 or 25. Perhaps even a DMU. No duplication there. 

We know these are tough times financially and this is a big investment for anyone. So we hope for great success for Hornby, and that Simon Kohlers enthusiasm for TT:120 is vindicated and more manufacturers will join in.